Dr Lynne Kelly is one of the more interesting people to be encountered among the Australian Skeptical community. She’s a writer, researcher and science educator, as well as being a foundation member of Australian Skeptics.

Lynne tends not to follow stereotypes. Her first tertiary qualification was in Engineering; armed with this, she began a teaching career in government secondary schools. On the way she co-authored a series of Maths text books. She later branched into extension education for gifted children. Her 1994 book Challenging Minds: Thinking Skills and Enrichment Activitiesis one result of that period.

This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet, and was previously posted on this site in 2010.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded here: http://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/educational/
or by clicking on the “Useful Info” link at the top of this page.

Have you ever bought something that you didn’t really want, because the salesperson was so nice, so persuasive, so helpful? Chances are that the salesperson (whether they knew it or not) was using some of the techniques of a skilled Cold Reader.

“Cold Reading” is a term invented by stage magicians. It refers to psychological techniques used by certain people to influence the beliefs and behaviour of other people. Read the rest of this entry »

“Now, there is a young boy here, as I walked on, he came on with me. I’ve not had a chance to process him. His name is James. He is saying (putting on the voice of a little boy) ‘I am sorry, I am sorry’.”

Sally Morgan’s show is underway.

For the benefit of readers, I set aside an evening along with fellow Skeptic Tony Pitman to report on popular UK psychic Sally Morgan’s show. Braving a very cold mid-winter’s Melbourne night to attend, we sat amongst 500 people in the audience of the Athenaeum Theatre which was at approximately 50% capacity.

Sally Morgan is one of the best known psychics in the UK, but is less well known in Australia. She has certainly attracted a fair share of controversy in the UK (see here, here and here).

I did a little research before attending; well, when I say ‘research’ I mean that I watched a few of Sally Morgan’s promotional You-Tube videos. The most obvious difference between the promotional videos and the actual live gig Read the rest of this entry »

Never has any psychic ever passed a rigorous scientific test of their claimed ability. While most skeptics are well aware of this, you’d think the media and society in general knew nothing of it.

Imagine what kind of world it would be if, from tomorrow, psychics really did have the abilities they claim to possess. The prizes from the next lottery would go to a series of psychics, presumably in order of merit. Fairly soon, non-psychics would stop buying tickets and the lotteries would fold. There wouldn’t be much point in casinos, bingo or horse races either.

The world we inhabit isn’t like that. We have lotteries and casinos that make a fortune, despite the presence of many psychics who travel the world flaunting their talents.

This month, (July 2013) Australia will be hosting a visit from prominent, UK based, self-proclaimed psychic Sally Morgan. Sally is scheduled to do Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever bought something that you didn’t really want, because the salesperson was so nice, so persuasive, so helpful? Chances are that the salesperson (whether they knew it or not) was using some of the techniques of a skilled Cold Reader.

“Cold Reading” is a term invented by stage magicians. It refers to psychological techniques used by certain people to influence the beliefs and behaviour of other people. Read the rest of this entry »

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